BUILDING CAPACITY TO DELIVER
THE GLOBAL STRATEGY 2015 - 2020
Terms of reference
WaterAid is seeking support in the development of materials to facilitate capacity assessments
that in turn support effective delivery of our new 5 year global strategy.
This terms of reference introduces WaterAid and gives the background to the scope of work and
timetable. We are seeking expressions of interest for this work by 13th March 2015.
Background
WaterAid is now in the final stages of the development of our next Global Strategy and the
Board of Trustees of each WaterAid member organisation has approved in principle the
proposed direction. The strategy document is being edited for final approval in March with the
formal launch being planned for May.
Alongside this, a process for developing Country Programme (CP) strategies has been
determined and this work will take place in countries with support from regional and UK teams
until October 2015.
In addition we have begun to think about an organisation development/enabling framework
which will underpin our work and will encompass strategies on people and other areas such as
IT (appendix 1).
Capability and capacity to deliver the global strategy
At Country Programme level:
Country Programmes are in the process of mapping out a process for the development of their
strategies. As part of this there will be an ongoing identification of the skills and knowledge
required for these strategies as they emerge.
We also recognise that the strategies need to be built on a realistic understanding of current
strengths, capacity gaps, and how skills can be acquired.
Once these capacity gaps are established we will need to be clear on ‘how’ these needs will be
met, for example which learning and development initiatives or resourcing plans can be put in
place. This will require joint working across departments for example using specialist expertise
in London, Regional Teams or elsewhere.
Capacity development needs to consider a range of creative approaches beyond the traditional
addition of headcount and provision of learning and development interventions. The capacity
assessment materials should enable the exploration of this e.g. use of consultants, volunteers,
advisory committees/councils, outsourced support, shared resource with other countries,
provision of expertise from other parts of WaterAid, shared resource with other organisations
(i.e. partners/ governments), building future talent pipelines (i.e. graduate/intern/apprentice
opportunities), widening our search for talent through more virtual working, etc.
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BUILDING CAPACITY TO DELIVER
THE GLOBAL STRATEGY 2015 - 2020
A recent short capacity assessment was undertaken across CPs to support them in starting this
thinking. This work will further build upon these initial assessments.
We want to ensure we have a high performing environment that ensures every member of staff
can do the best job possible. Therefore capacity assessments should also consider the ways of
working necessary to deliver the strategy and achieve our mission. We want to be sure that we
are not adding roles where better performance management, ensuring we have the right people
in roles, the right integration and communication in and across teams, and addressing
blockages in terms of ways of working, systems and processes will also increase capacity.
At Global/ UK/ Regional level
Capacity assessments and capacity building are also important at the level of Regional teams
and WaterAid UK or other member teams (including teams based in London). In their planning
these teams are considering the leadership and specialist input required of them by the
organisation as a whole as well as the support that is needed of them by CPs. Their role in
supporting Country Programmes may evolve as Country level strategies are developed.
Team roles
Name and job title
Annette Gillingham – Head of
Leadership and Engagement
Veerinder Puri – Head of International
People Management
Fiona Lavery – Head of UK People
Management
Regional People Leads
Country programme People and OD
leads, where applicable
Subject management experts – normally
in regional teams or in London.
Project consultant To be appointed
Key responsibilities in this project
Overall responsibility for the project and coordinating resources.
Leading international capacity assessment and
international resourcing implications
Advising on UK implications
Supporting CP capacity assessment
Supporting CP capacity assessment
See below
Role of the project consultant
We are seeking assistance with the assessment of our current capacity and future requirements
at a global and country level. We anticipate that this will be to provide resources to help us
assess:
1. The key skills and knowledge needed across the organisation (across different functional
areas and also at Country Programme level) to implement the new global strategy. What are the
skills and knowledge required? How many people do we need with these skills and knowledge
and where do they need to be located?
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BUILDING CAPACITY TO DELIVER
THE GLOBAL STRATEGY 2015 - 2020
2. The current capacity of the organisation and also specifically at CP level. What skills do we
have, how many people and where are they located.
3.’How’ will we meet the capacity gaps that we have at organisational level and also at CP
level? For example, what learning and development initiatives may be required, what
resourcing will be required and how will we find this talent, so that the strategies are realistic
and are built on the capacity they have or are able to obtain.
4. A way of collating information on the skills and numbers of people needed to implement each
CP strategy, so that it is clear the areas of capacity which will be required and met at CP level
and what may need to be met in other parts of the organisation. This will be important for
decision making and also to overall organisational resourcing and development initiatives.
5. What changes in behaviours, culture, working environment, structures may we require to
deliver the new strategy.
We are anticipating that some outcomes from this work would include:
1. Some facilitated sessions with the members of the People Team and also a small working
groups of key staff around the organisation to provide ideas and context for the work and
support its development.
2. Production of a session facilitation pack for Regional People Leads to use at appropriate
stages of the CP strategy process, see appendix 2. This would likely be a session pack for a 1-2
day interactive workshop with each CP. The aim is that this is not a paper based skills audit
which CPs would complete, but more a facilitated session which would evolve the thinking
through discussion. This workshop would aim to support CPs to consider:
 What skills and knowledge they require to deliver the new strategy.
 What do they currently have in place
 How will they ensure they are able to meet these gaps over the next 5 years (practical
steps)
 What changes do they need to make in terms of ways of working, culture, processes etc.
 Any changes required to their working environment or structure to support this and how
3. A session facilitation pack (or to run facilitated sessions) with subject matter experts on the
people demands of the Global Strategy (for example with different functional teams)
4. A way of pulling the information together to inform global resourcing and learning and
development strategies, including a set of templates to capture the information gathered across
the organisation in a simplistic way. This should support WaterAid in developing a clear
implementation plan at CP level (as part of their 5 year people plan) and an overarching plan as
part of the People and OD Strategy.
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BUILDING CAPACITY TO DELIVER
THE GLOBAL STRATEGY 2015 - 2020
Other Considerations

The importance of talent pipeline management/succession planning –to manage and
retain our talent effectively and ensure we do not have vacancies in critical roles.

Engagement and retention are also critical to ensure that we are getting maximum
value from all our existing employees by harnessing discretionary effort, and that we are
not wasting resources on recruiting into high numbers of vacancies.

Big picture questions will also be important so we don’t get lost in the detail – e.g.: What
are some of the enablers and blockers? What will help us to achieve our vision, or stop
us from succeeding? What really makes things happen ‘on the ground’?

Do we need an analysis of external resource pools?

Personal qualities and behaviours are critical to success – eg Flexibility, Commitment,
how will we ensure that these are given full weight in the analysis and plans?

Keeping it future focussed – how clear will future be and when? (will require agility at
individual and organisation level too?)

How to incorporate and build on the CP assessments that have already taken place?
See appendix 3
Proposed Timelines
March 2015
Appoint consultant
March - April Development of materials (including the facilitation packs for CPs)
2015
Tools and templates to be provided to Regional People Leads to support
May
CP strategy process. A session with the team on delivering these
workshops
May –
Regional People Leads to work with CPs to establish needs and
August
capacity. Sessions with functional teams / subject matter experts to
establish key global capacity areas.
August A piece of work to pull this information together from CPs and other
September
functional teams
Implementation
October
onwards
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BUILDING CAPACITY TO DELIVER
THE GLOBAL STRATEGY 2015 - 2020
Appendix 1: Draft global strategy enabling framework
WaterAid’s Enabling Framework
Our vision
Our mission
Our values
Our enabling vision
Governance &
Strategy
Systems &
Technology
Ways of
Working
Living our values
IT Systems
Planning
Working in Partnership
Measures of change
Innovation, learning &
knowledge building
Effectiveness &
impact though
technology
Governance
Financial Strategy
Internal processes
being agile
Ethical stewardship
Risk / opportunity
Management
Environmental stewardship
Organisational
design
Team working across
a global organisation
Internal communications
5
Our People
Leadership
People
Management
Engagement
Skills and
competencies
BUILDING CAPACITY TO DELIVER
THE GLOBAL STRATEGY 2015 - 2020
APPENDIX 2: Country Programme strategy development process
Stage 1:
Preparing to
plan
Stage 2:
Reflection,
analysis and
visioning
Stage 3:
Visioning and
definition of
role and ToC
Stage 4:
Strategic
choices and
prioritisation
Stage 5: Design
of
programmatic
approach
Stage 6:
Developing a
measurement
framework
Stage 7:
Resource
planning and
implications
Stage 8:
Drafting,
consultation
and final
approval
Stage 2: Reflection, analysis and visioning
People implications of SWOT analysis:
What are our people strengths? Areas where we are well covered – e.g. management, technical,
finance, people and OD, advocacy, fundraising etc
What are our people weaknesses – gaps? Lack of capacity?
What are the opportunities – working with partners, working with consultants, joining with other CP’s to
share talent, support from Region or London teams, hiring people from a strong talent pool,
What are the threats – competition in the talent pool, visa issues
Stage 5: Design your programmatic approach:
Based on the strategic choices we have made, what are the programmatic decisions made in terms of
geographical location, resources, partnership etc.? What will our country programme look like in 5
years? Are there any necessary shifts and changes to our people – numbers, capabilities?
Stage 7: Resource planning and organisational implications
What is the level of growth that we expect to see in order for us to achieve our objectives? what people
resources do we need to achieve our goals?
Consider how you see your organisation structure and the skill sets required to deliver your strategy. Do
we have the required skillset? What knowledge and people skills do we need? How will we develop
these?
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BUILDING CAPACITY TO DELIVER
THE GLOBAL STRATEGY 2015 - 2020
APPENDIX 3: Short CP capacity assessment recently undertaken (with an
example)
Functional area
A=4
B=3
C=2
Very High
High
Moderate Low
Programmes:
3
D=1
Total
points
3
Quality; E&I; Sustainability
Integrated approach
Policy & advocacy:
2
2
Strategic engagement; GAP 2
Regional / global links
Grant management :
3
3
Proposal development; Donor comm.;
Progress on plans; Reporting
Reforecasting
Finance :
2
2
2
2
Budget monitoring; Internal controls;
Phasing;
Reforecasting;
Fin
performance
People:
Recruitment prac; Staff engagement
L’ship & mgmt dev; Addressing poor
perf, conflict
Total
12
A = 16 - 20 : Countries with very high capacities
B = 11-15 :
Countries with reasonably good capacities
C = 6 – 10 : Countries with average capacities
D=0–5:
Countries with low capacities
In this case, this country has scored 12 which puts it in category B.
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